Frank A. Campbell says that idyllic cruises bring pollution in their wake, and describes
what is being done to clean it up

Few literary and artistic creations are more alluring than brochures
inviting would-be vacationers to cruise on Caribbean waters. The
pages whisper enticing promises of limitless grace, space and
freedom in a world which, it seems, cannot be explained without
evoking the superlative.

Dip a finger beneath this magnificent surface, though, and another
reality emerges. It is an ecological story written in rather more
murky characters.

The very statistics tell of a fragile ecology under stress. The
Wider Caribbean Region, stretching from Florida to French Guiana,
receives 63,000 calls from ships each year, and they generate
82,000 tonnes of garbage. About 77 per cent of all ship waste
comes from cruise vessels.

The average cruise ship carries 600 crew and 1,400 passengers.
Cruise ships are getting bigger  60,000 or 70,000 tonnes in past
years, 100,000 tonnes today, 110,000 in a year or so. People are
lining up for Caribbean cruises. And there is the economic pull.
Small islands, traditionally dependent on banana exports, are
busy erecting berths for cruise ships.

Already an average of 200 cruises take 400,000 visitors to Caribbean
ports every month. The environmental stress begins when the first
shampoo or champagne bottle is emptied or the first half-eaten
steak is retrieved from the table. On average, passengers on a
cruise ship each account for 3.5 kilograms of garbage daily 
compared with the 0.8 kilograms each generated by the less well-endowed
folk on shore.

However, disposal, not quantity, is the real issue. Amy Silva
wrote in the April/May 1995 issue of Eco Aruba: From the very first moment human beings sailed the seven seas,
they have used the international waters of our planet as mankinds
biggest dump. A report called The Caribbean:A Very Special Area, produced under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization
(IMO) says there are, on sea as on land, basically two kinds of
waste: garbage, and oily waste generated by the operation of the
vessels.

Pollution and healthPollution affects the sea, called the Caribbeans greatest economic
asset, in many ways. Beaches are less attractive if polluted by
garbage brought by strong currents or dumped in the local harbour.
Fish are killed by oil and other waste. Other animals get injured
or die from being entangled in plastic ropes or eating plastic
products. Marine pollution is also becoming a significant human
health concern.

Then there are the coral reefs  a major attraction and part of
a fragile ecosystem. Caribbean reefs, 9 per cent of the worlds
total, are affected, some believe, not only by oil spills but
also by supposedly harmless grey water  the by-product of baths,
showers and other cleaning activities.

Thankfully, the law has been coming to the rescue of the environment.
The Cayman Islands was the first Caribbean country to impose severe
fines against cruise lines for violating waste-disposal requirements
or other environmental laws.

In February 1993 violations by two separate ships of Regency Cruise
Lines led United States District Court Judge Ralph W. Nimmons
Jr. to impose a fine of a quarter of a million dollars. A public
apology, ordered by the judge, included the companys hope that
our guilty plea will be a lesson to others that environmental
laws must be respected. Earlier, Princess Cruises was ordered
to pay half a million dollars for dumping plastic bags: the passenger
who videotaped it doing so was awarded half the fine.

The impetus for such legal initiatives may have come from the
International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from
Ships. Approved in 1973 and amended by protocol in 1978, it is
called MARPOL 73/78 and administered by the IMO. It is supposed
to operate through five annexes containing detailed provisions
on how and where ship waste should be disposed of. Four are in
force: Annexes 1 (Oily Waste), 2 (Noxious Liquid Substances),
3 (Harmful Substances), and 5 (Garbage). Annex 4 (Sewage) is not.
Why? One expert says Caribbean and other countries are incapable
of dealing with their own sewage, let alone that from ships. Many
cruise ships, he says, have higher standards than the countries
they visit.

The law has been coming to the rescue of the environment...

Is MARPOL working? Seems so. Domestic environmental laws under
which cruise ships are fined largely reflect MARPOLs provisions.
The industry has made noticeable changes. Princess Cruises has
come a long way since paying that fine. It has instituted a zero
discharge policy and switched to less wasteful products. Out
with plastic shampoo bottles. In with paper containers. Out with
excessive aluminium containers. In with soft-drink fountains.

Lt. Cdr. Curtis Roach, Regional Maritime Safety Adviser to the
Caribbean Community, notes that newer ships have built-in waste-management
systems, including incinerators and recycling centres. Some have
complex sewage treatment processes and systems to preserve waste
fuel for recycling at port. The 1992 Earth Summit has been credited
with getting cruise ships and their suppliers to take action.

Old ships cannot easily convert, but, says Cdr. Roach, they are
not likely to last anyway: they cannot compete against newer vessels.

Much to doGovernments also recognize that they still have much to do. There
is little point in having cruise ships separate recyclable material
from real garbage if regional ports cannot handle it either. One
project designed to address this issue is being implemented by
the six tiny island governments of the Organization of Eastern
Caribbean States (OECS). The OECS Solid and Ship-Generated Waste
Management Project, funded by the Global Environment Facility
(GEF) and other donors, has several facets: receptacles for garbage
brought in by ships; proper sanitary landfills to replace the
current insanitary garbage dumps; a $1.50 levy charged to each
cruise line passenger to help finance these services.

The levy was only brought in after a war of words, with cruise
lines threatening to by-pass certain ports and the World Bank
encouraging governments to stand firm. Project Manager David Simmons
says the proper treatment and burying of waste will reduce the
amount of garbage blowing about, the proliferation of vectors
and vermin and the smoke and fire  which have all affected people
in nearby communities. This project has been described as a model
for the Wider Caribbean Region because of its integrated approach
to ship- and land-generated waste.

These, however, are tiny steps compared with what is needed if
the Caribbean is to benefit fully from MARPOL. The recently concluded
Wider Caribbean Initiative on Ship-Generated Waste (WCISW) laid
the groundwork for a larger regional effort. Between these two
initiatives is the CARICOM programme led by Cdr. Roach, which
includes a number of small non-CARICOM states but not all the
22 Wider Caribbean countries.

The Caribbean has been designated as a Special Area under MARPOLs
Annex 5, putting the region in a select group including the Mediterranean,
the Baltic, the Black Sea, the Red Sea and the Antarctic, where
the dumping of garbage  apart from ground food waste  is totally
prohibited. Yet, this more stringent protection has not yet been
triggered in the Caribbean. It will exist only on paper as long
as the region lacks adequate facilities to receive on land the
garbage that ships will be prevented from dumping at sea.

Frank A. Campbell,formerly Ambassador of Guyana to Cuba and Minister of Information,
was Foreign Affairs Officer of the Caribbean Community Secretariat.
He is currently President of ARISE!, an Ottawa-based communications
consulting firm, and writes regularly on international development
issues.